2007 – Page 276

Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso met Prince Saud al Faisal at the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Saudi Arabia. “The time has come to formalize our friendship ties. This historic visit shows the interest of your government and President in closer relations with our region,” said Prince Saud. The DR is expected to shortly …

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Once again the issue of the very large coal-fired generators planned for Azua and Manzanillo is in the news. Radhames Segura, head of the CDEEE, told reporters from Diario Libre that the financial deals necessary for these generating stations are nearly closed. He announced that actual construction of the sites would begin in April and …

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Apparently in the spirit of one of their party slogans, members of the Chamber of Deputies prefer to eat instead of working on pending legislation. For the 18th time in 49 sessions the deputies failed to make a quorum and the session was recessed. Congress leader Julio Cesar Valentin’s efforts to work through the 35-point …

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Despite recent news items about the possibility of the Dominican Republic exporting sugar to the European Union, the EU has apparently not offered nor will it offer a sugar quota within the economic agreement that will be signed with the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) nations. According to Diario Libre, what chief EU negotiator Karl …

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DR-CAFTA gives the Dominican Republic the opportunity to export products made with raw materials from any country. The CAFTA deal is more flexible than the US’s NAFTA agreement with Mexico and Canada. This flexibility will allow the DR to attract new investments, not only from countries that don’t have a free trade agreement with the …

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One of the leaders of the free zone industrialists and a spokesperson for the sector, Fernando Capellan was interviewed by reporters from Multimedios del Caribe, the publishers of El Caribe newspaper. During his interview, Capellan revealed how what he called “a mafia of lawyers” was exploiting workers and employers alike. As president of Grupo M, …

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The Attorney General of the Dominican Republic has announced the beginning of the cleansing of 635,000 police files on citizens and residents of the Dominican Republic. The AG announced that any file that was not accompanied by a judicial conviction would be eliminated. The first step will be to go through the files dating back …

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Two people were wounded and 10 arrested during demonstrations in support of the 24-hour strikes in Bonao and Salcedo. The strikes were successful in both provinces, with schools, public offices and stores all shut down. In the province of Monsignor Nouel (Bonao), the people were asking for a roadway between the villages of Arroyo Toro …

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Police Chief Bernardo Santana Paez has assigned 100 new patrols to the streets of Santo Domingo. The patrols will work in the central neighborhoods of Naco, Piantini, Winston Churchill Ave. and surrounding areas. More patrols are scheduled for the Kilometer 9, San Carlos and Cristo Rey areas of the nation’s capital. Seventeen officers will be …

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The latest State Department report on human rights in the Dominican Republic could be seen as positive or negative, depending on which newspaper one reads. Listin Diario says that the State Department accuses the Dominican Republic of practicing serious discrimination against Haitians and their descendants. In contrast, El Caribe’s article starts by saying that “human …

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